Since the times of the Egyptian pharaohs, people, mostly women, have been using cosmetics to enhance their beauty. You have to admit that a well made-up face is quite attractive.

The cosmetics industry is huge. Thumb through the pages of Vogue or People Magazine and you see millions of dollars of advertising spent promoting the leading brands. The goal? To have women the world over buy their products and use them every day as part of their daily routine. A consumable product and high profit margins make this a lucrative business.

Beauty to Die for

Revlon and L’Oreal are two of the biggest cosmetics companies in the world. Today they are under attack. The world is slowly awakening to the dangers of many ingredients used by the cosmetic industry for years — and Revlon and L’Oreal are two of the last holdouts to acknowledge this.

The Environmental Working Group [EWG] is a science-based watchdog group concerned with the toxicity load on planet Earth. They have been instrumental in educating and causing countless cosmetics companies to reformulate their products.

Two of the worst chemicals in cosmetics products over the years are DMDM Hydrantoin and parabens. DMDM Hydrantoin is known to release cancer-causing formaldehyde. Parabens are linked to disruption of the endocrine system. Google them both — scary stuff!

So what’s the big deal if it’s in cosmetics products? If it’s on your skin, it will get into your blood system and into your cells — much the way nicotine patches work.

But cosmetics can’t contain enough of these ingredients to affect us?

Think again. People use three, five, ten cosmetics products a day, every day for years. Hand creams, moisturisers, lipsticks, nail polish, make-up. The assault on the unsuspecting consumer dripping poison into her body thousands of days over a lifetime absolutely can have an effect!

In fact,

“EWG’s teen body burden study found an average of 13 cosmetics chemicals in the bodies of teenage girls. Among them were phthalates, triclosan, parabens and musks – all of which have been found to alter the hormone system.”

How responsible are Revlon and L’Oreal being to their customers? Why do they continue to offer toxic products for retail sale across the globe? Greed pure and simple.

It’s funny. According to the FDA’s definition of cosmetics, they are “intended to be applied to the human body for cleansing, beautifying, promoting attractiveness, or altering the appearance without affecting the body’s structure or functions.”

Revlon’s and L’Oreal’s products don’t even qualify as cosmetics — because they absolutely affect the body’s structure and function due to the toxic chemicals they load into their products.

Beauty to die for.